Harlan+LMF

//Learning Motivation and Fun//
 Theories of Engagement

I began this assignment by creating some basic, very stereotypical learning statements focused on age and gender with the intention of supporting these theories or debunking them based on the responses in the LMF database.

My five statements were:

2. Women prefer more interactive and cooperative learning rather than competitive 3. Younger people 10-19 prefer more interactive, social learning 4. Humor plays a large role in learning engagement 5. Practical application is important to learners.**
 * 1. Males prefer learning with a competitive edge

Overall, 153 respondents posted videos, 67(44%) males and 86(56%) females. (Note: several more videos were posted after my analysis.)


 * Theory #1- Males prefer competitive learning over cooperative.** Thirteen (19%) of the males reported they preferred games with high competition. Of these 13 situations, all included high interaction with others. Interestingly, most responses indicated high cooperation, as well. Only 5 males (7%) reported an experience that was high competition and low cooperation, and only 2 females (2 %.) Denise from San Diego described her SAT practice that was highly competitive with low cooperation. However, on watching some of the videos, I didn’t see of competition in all of them. Mario described his Rice Krispie cake making experience, but there was no competition. There was also a similarity in response among females; 17 (20%) reported high engagement in a highly competitive situation. So for our small group of video submitters, learning in a competitive situation was similarly divided between the genders. (Because this was a convenience sampling, I wonder what percentage of the sample were educators, and whether that affected their perception of engagement.)


 * Theory #2 - Women prefer cooperative learning over competitive.** The numbers indicated that 34 out of 65 (40%) of the videos reported a highly cooperative environment, and the males reported an almost identical number 27/67 (40 %.) In one example, Asuman described a highly interactive assignment interviewing total strangers on the street who were also foreigners. Then there was Al, the writing dancer, had a fun story. He vividly described tango lessons that required much team cooperation. So there is no support from this database that there is a gender difference when it comes to cooperative versus competitive learning.

Of the respondents, 29/56 (52%) reported a highly interactive experience. Andy described learning how to print multi-colored T-shirts. He succeeded because he received one-on-one instructions from the instructor. I thought I was finally on to something as the percentages of high interaction dwindled moving up through the ages until I reached the 50+ group and the numbers increased. Thirty-eight percent reported a highly interactive experience. Grandma Artis described a ceramics lesson that included visiting with friends in the class and sharing results with them. So from these few examples, there’s not enough evidence to suggest that one age group prefers more or less interactivity in learning than another.
 * Theory #3- Younger people, ages 2-19, prefer interactive, social learning more than their elders.**


 * Theory #4: Humor is an important aspect of learning.** I was surprised that only 17 of the 153 (13%) videos were identified as having a high-humor rating. Again, I am not sure the tagging was entirely accurate. Stacey described a geo-caching activity for one of Bernie’s classes. The humor element may have been more implied. Also, Mridu interviewed a young man in electrical engineering who took a field trip and interacted with workers in the industry. He described it as fun and engaging, but no mention of humor. More interestingly, 105/153 (69%) reported high teacher enthusiasm. Cliff described a workshop related to mountain search-and-rescue in which the instructor kept them totally engaged. A more supported conclusion might be that an engaging and knowledgeable instructor is more important than one who is just a good stand-up comic.


 * Theory #5: Relevancy is important to learning engagement.** Of the responses, 111/153 (73%) indicated that relevancy was important to learning. I noticed this common thread among most of the videos- what the learners appreciated was the practical application or relevance of the content. Captain Austin described a course about learning to become a captain and the practical instruction on tools and location plotting techniques. He revealed that the relevancy of the lesson was even more important than the beautiful island locale and small class size. Adam described a childhood experience about welding and pottery and the relevance of those skills today. He also pointed out that most everything is fun when one is 6 years old, especially when working with one’s hands. Jay’s learning experience involved invertebrate evolution and the realization of the randomness and complexity of the adaptation process. He came away with a basic truth about life and evolution from a seemingly simple activity.

Though, by no means a scientific analysis, I still feel justified in saying that two truths underlie engaging learning experiences. One is that the instructor must be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his topic, and two, the content must have some relevance or application to our own reality. I am relieved that some of my stereotypes were not supported by the evidence implying that neither age nor gender outweighs the importance of a good instructor and relevant content. For application to my own work and teaching, I am even more encouraged to express my passion and enthusiasm for my subject and to appeal to my students with examples of application and relevancy to their lives.